Frugal Living: A Complete Guide To Save Money (2020)

Living a frugal life can mean different things to different people. But one fact remains the same, that is, there are even the smallest frugal living tips with a big impact.

Living that kind of lifestyle can be hard at times and exhausting. That said, once you get used to it, it will become second nature and you’d tell yourself why you didn’t live this life before.

You don’t have to do everything frugally to see a difference. You just need to focus on certain that can get you the results you need.

In this post, you’ll learn:

• Best frugal living tips with a big impact
• Surprising ways to live cheaply

If you are ready to learn about these tips:

Read on!

 

Frugal Living Tips: A Beginner’s Complete Guide (17 of the Best) 

Here are some of the best tips to live a frugal life that my wife and I have adapted in the past few years. Some work like magic and some took time to work.

That said, they would work in helping you achieve that frugal lifestyle you’ve always wanted to try or dreamed of.

See this: Learn these money lessons from frugal-living celebrities.

This post is broken out into:

• What Is Frugal Living?
• Basics of Frugal Living
• Easiest Frugality Tips To Start From Day One
• Other Frugal Tips You Need To Know Of

 

What Is Frugal Living?

The greatest accomplishments always start with the basics. In this case, before you start living a frugal life, you need to understand what frugal living is all about.

Frugal living is living within your means and focusing on addressing your needs at least possible cost and disregarding your wants.

People who live this lifestyle tend to have specific reasons. Those may include:

• The need to retire early
• The need to pay off debt fast
• The need to buy important things like house

Though living in such lifestyle is a good one, there are times that being frugal can cost you a lot of money. For example, you chose a cheap car insurance, but you end up paying a lot more when you get into an accident.

This means that it’s best to weigh in options before going for the cheapest choice.

Now that you’ve learn what this term is about, let’s talk about the the tips and ideas to live a simple, frugal life.

 

Basic Frugal Living Tips and Ideas

If you want to live this lifestyle and want to learn how to live cheap, you have to start with the basics.

Let’s start.

1. Create a budget. Make sure to track your income and expenses. The more you know about what money is coming in and where the money is going out, the better you are with planning and managing your money.
2. Set financial goals. Whether you have a ton of debt or no savings at all, you need to set your financial goals so you know which direction you need to go.
3. Pay off your debt. A lot of people have debts. Before you do anything (e.g., invest money, purchase a home, buy new clothes, etc.), you need to start paying off your debt. Try to consolidate your debt using companies like SoFi (it has really low-interest rates) or Tally (another one with so-low rates), and pay less on interest charges.
4. Park your money where you can save the most. Not all banks are created equal. If you want your money to work for you, choose a bank that offers the highest interest rate on your savings and the lowest fees. Banks like CIT Bank offers over 2.25% in APY – most banks offer 0.01%. Imagine you’re making more than 25 times from CIT Bank that those well-known banks.
5. Check your credit report regularly. Your chance of success at frugal living can actually start with your credit. Check your credit report using Credit Sesame (it’s FREE) to see where you stand with your credit and what ways you can do to improve your credit score.
6. Avoid debts where possible. When it comes to living a frugal life, one of the best ways to make it happen is to avoid incurring debt. As simple as that. How? Make sure you stash money for emergency purposes, stay within your means, and, when you need to buy something, find ways options to get those for a low price as much as possible.
7. Save an emergency fund. What’s the easiest way to incur debt? The answer is borrowing money when rainy days (or emergencies) arise. Make sure you save money for the unknowns so you won’t need to borrow from banks or people that charge high-interest rates.

 

Easiest, Small Frugality Tips To Start From Day One

Now, it’s time for the fun part. Now that you know the basics of living a frugal life, it’s now time to understand what the easiest frugal living tips you can put into action now.

1. Dining with Frugality in Mind

Dining, both at home and at restaurants, is something which can bump up the costs. The good news is that there are ways to do so in a frugal manner and this is one of the frugal living tips you need to know about.

When dining out, make use of restaurant special deals and coupons on restaurant meals. You can even use apps for coupons to help you find the best coupons available.

Many times a restaurant will offer early bird specials where you get an inclusive meal for a great price.

Sometimes restaurants will offer dine-in deals where customers can enjoy a meal out on the town and take advantage of a special dining offering, such as two-for-one lobsters or all-you-can-eat steak night.

If dining at home is what you prefer, there are many creative ways to save money and cook at home.

Shopping at farmers’ markets will often gain you good deals, especially when it comes to bountiful fruits and vegetables.

You can also take advantage of grocery store coupons on your purchases at your local store.

Here are some ways or apps to save money when dining out:

• Ibotta: Save money not only on groceries but also on restaurants. Sign up for a $10 bonus.
• Restaurant.com: Buy coupons for a fraction of a cost. For example, buy a $15 off coupon for just $1.

2. Joining Free Focus Groups To Earn Extra Money At Home

I do not recommend surveys as ways of building wealth, but then, if you don’t have much to do at the moment, it wouldn’t really take you much to make some extra cash from your couch.

There are some really great survey sites I believe you can try out for some real opportunity to earn:

• Survey Junkie: this represents one of your biggest opportunities to influence new products, receive gift vouchers and earn cash from your sofa. Enough said, you can join for free.
• Survey Club: The survey that pays out $115 for focus group survey. No one beats Survey Club when it comes to food, travel, and entertainment surveys. You can literally make so much money from this platform.

I’ll tell you that joining these focus groups is one of the best frugal living tips I’ve ever applied in my life.

3. Using Coupons When Shopping

Whether shopping for food, household products, or other items, coupons are extremely helpful when shopping at various stores. Coupons will help you to shop for everything you need and do so with a frugal style.

From buy one, get one coupons to extremely beneficial 50% off coupons, using these frugal living tips when doing your shopping is an excellent way to save extra money. You can also use some grocery list mobile apps to find out more savings.

Sometimes you can even lump the coupons together, providing you with even greater discounts than if you just used one of your coupon options.

Shopping with coupons, whether print out or virtual ones, will help to make your total purchase a less pricey one.

You may even find that department stores offer their own coupons which can enable you to save money on clothing, household items and so much more.

Here are some sites where you can get free coupons:

• Swagbucks: Plus get $15 sign up bonus
• MyPoints: Get an additional $10 when you make your first $20 purchase

4. Saving Money While Shopping for Home Items

There are also ways to save money when shopping for items for the home and you can read on for this important bit of info on the frugal living tips list.

From outdoor yard items, such as lawnmowers and outdoor furniture, to indoor home decor pieces, like curtains, chairs, tables and more, you can purchase everything you want and get a good deal doing so.

Ways to frugally purchase home items is to buy them mid-season. You’ll get great deals on mid-season purchases and still have the remainder of the season to put them to good use.

If shopping for large furniture pieces, you’ll find that large furniture retail stores will often offer special furniture deals during different holidays.

You can save money by waiting for an upcoming holiday, whether it’s Memorial Day, President’s Day, or some other federal holiday, and then buying your large furniture items then.

An additional way to save more money while shopping for home items is to purchase discontinued home decor items. The fabrics and patterns may no longer be being used by the company and sold to consumers.

With this in mind, the company may be eager to practically give away their leftover discontinued model items and will offer these items at extraordinary price points.

Some of the ways to cut your shopping expenses or I should say save you money while doing your shopping include the following:

• Ebates: Earn up to 40% cash back when you use this site to get to your destination site. Just go to this site, search for the store you like to shop, click on it, and, then, you’ll be transferred to that site. Once you purchase from that store, you’ll then get a cash back stored in your Ebates account, which will be disbursed on a quarterly basis. That’s it.
• Swagbucks: Just like Ebates and its process of getting you cash back, Swagbucks can help you earn as high as 40% of select stores.

5. Money-Saving Entertainment Options

When you take part in entertainment activities, you can do so with an inexpensive spending method in place. Many movie theaters will offer special discount days while others will have membership clubs which will help you to save your hard-earned cash.

From bowling to zoo visits to museum stops, entertainment discounts abound and high in demand.

If you have kids, you should also be aware of child-friendly discounts where you can save some money when enjoying events with the little ones.

Also, there are places where kids eat free.

Always look at the ages when purchasing entertainment tickets to see if your kids still qualify for child prices. Plus, there may be some “kids get in for free” opportunities where you can gain free admission for the young ones in the family.

This will take your frugal living tips practice to a whole new level.

 

Other Frugal Tips You Need To Know Of

Here are some other frugal living ideas to help you save as much as you could on things you need the most.

6. Home Repairs

Hiring a handyman is necessary at times, but this can be quite costly. Another one of the frugal living tips you should consider pursuing is taking care of your home repairs on your own.

Home repairs can be difficult but with the help of YouTube videos and other online tutorials, many individuals are taking it up on themselves to perform the repairs on their own.

From unclogging drains to shingling roofs, there are a lot of things you can learn by watching YouTube videos created by those in the respective professions.

You might also find that you know someone in the home repair industry who is willing to help you achieve all of your home repair goals, such as a friend or family member.

Taking it upon yourself to do the repairs on your own will save some cash and help you to build confidence knowing that you are quite capable of doing the job alone.

With that said, there are certain repairs that only a professional should perform.

So, be sure to reach out to those in the know for the larger home repair jobs so you can have the work done right by those in the profession.

7. Transportation

Transportation methods are something that can put a good dent in your bank account.

On the bright side, there are ways to save money with regard to transportation. If you live in the city, try to take advantage of public transportation.

Taking the bus or train to work each day will save you money on gas and other incidentals. Another way to save money on transportation is to carpool with friends and coworkers.

If you drive your own car to work or to run errands, take advantage of the least expensive gas prices and take roads where tolls are not present.

You can still use the various transportation modes, get to where you need to go, and save money on transportation expenses.

8. Dollar Store Shopping

Another one of the frugal living tips which provides a way to save money and still get everything you need is to take advantage of dollar store shopping.

Shopping at dollar stores provides you with plentiful products for the taking at the bargain price of $1.

From beauty supplies to household goods to holiday products and more, dollar stores are a great place to stock up on all of the items you need and want.

Many times the dollar stores will even sell well-known brands which you would find at popular grocery stores and department stores. This means that you can get everything you would purchase elsewhere for a fraction of the price at the dollar store.

9. At-Home Beauty Regimens

Saving money can also be accomplished by putting the nail salon and beauty salon treatments on hold for a while.

When considering frugal living tips, this one is important. You can find top-notch nail products at local retailers and do your fingernails and toenails on your own.

This will save you the cost of going to the nail salon for manicures and pedicures. This goes also for certain hair salon appointments, such as color treatments.

There are many different hair color products available at drugstores which allow you to pick your hair color of choice and do the treatments yourself at home. The same is true for facials and other salon treatments.

You can purchase high-end DIY facial products at local retailers and perform the skin mask treatments on your own.

You’ll receive similar results as you would if you went to a spa and save a lot of money, too.

All of these savings will add up and provide you with an increase in your personal bank account, which is sure to come in handy and something you’ll appreciate with your hard-earned money.

10. Clothing Deals

Clothing is another costly purchase item that doesn’t have to be pricey. There are ways to purchase the clothing items you desire and get them for a great price.

You can do some initial window shopping in local stores and then find the same items online for a less expensive price tag. Online shopping offers an easy way to save money and get the clothing items you’ve wanted all along.

This is not just true for adult clothing but for kid’s products as well.

Sometimes you can shop at the same store online and get an even better deal with the online price, just because you’re purchasing the items in an online forum and not in-person at the store.

Another way to score big discounts on clothing items is to shop seasonal sales at your favorite shops.

Seasonal sales offer huge discounts on items which you can still wear for the season and/or save them until the season arrives once again. Saving money when shopping for clothes will yield big results with your bank account bottom line.

11. DIY Projects to Save Cash

Sometimes all it takes to live a frugal life and save some money in your daily activities is to get involved with DIY projects.

From make-your-own beauty products to sewing your own clothing and household decor items, such as pillows, doing things yourself can help you to save money. Some people even make their own household cleaning products to save money and pursue healthy green living.

DIY projects enable you to live frugally and take pride in knowing that your hard work and creativity is adding to your beautiful household.

 

Final Thoughts On Frugal Living Tips:

Living frugally can be difficult, but it doesn’t always have to be.

There are things you can do now that doesn’t involve too much work.

You don’t need to cheapskate or sacrifice a whole lot to live a frugal life. Believe it or not, you just need to tweak some of the things you are doing right now. That’s it.

What’s your reason for wanting to live a frugal life? Are there other frugal living tips you’d like to share?